So is there a problem or are you just trying to figure out what the box does? I know you don't want to believe it but I too think it has something to do with your ignition. It sounds like the only way you're going to find out is by opening up the wire harness. I have a feeling once you do you're going to find 2 wires running to some sort of a trigger somewhere. JMHOScottie

No problem. I've just got my curiosity back up & now I can't let it go.

I've just come up from an hour & 15 minutes of harness unwrapping. This is an '08 & I hope the new ones are better. My hands hurt so bad I had to quit. Whoever wrapped these wires should be fired or get some kind of award; Super Tape Wrapper Boy of the Month.

It's three layers of the toughest, stickiest most stubborn &*@#*& tape I've ever come across. I got about 16" & had to quit.

All I know so far is that the two greens that come out of the side case are spliced into a few more greens of the same gauge & go somewhere (I don't know where yet. I DO know that two of them branch off & go back inSIDE the left side case where the ends just plug together with a RE type factory bullet plug.

Maybe? it's meant to disable this whole "green wire" circuit by unplugging this one plug which is totally accessible in the side box? Not buried in the rat's nest under the seat (which I aim to fix).

Only ONE green wire goes forward inside the harness where everything exits out of the harness just aft of the nacelle. It does not go into the primary. Next time I go down I'll verify the colors coming out of the primary cover; I believe they're three yellows & they go to the regulator. The wires in this harness go nowhere near the engine or the starter. They go to the nacelle with two branching off to the coil.

I don't mind rewrapping this harness (I've done whole cars). At least I'll know what's in there, get rid of this tape nightmare & the next owner won't have to deal with it. I would NEVER wrap this much immoveable stickytape around wires; it must have taken 2 hours & it's a nightmare to get off.

After another afternoon of (1) finishing unwrapping the harness, (2) sorting out the rat's nest of small wires under the seat & (3) pulling all the green wires out of the side case & laying it all out where it can be looked at I've solved the little black box mystery.

First of all only ONE green wire goes forward in the harness & that wire is separate & has nothing to do with all these other green wires. I could not see this until everything was laid out where it could be seen. That green wire goes to the front brake light switch (if I had straightened out the rat's nest under the seat FIRST I would have known this).

Secondly none of the other green wires that go in & out of the side case & wander around under the seat do ANYthing. They don't go anywhere any more & I remember vaguely now what happened. I created the confusion when I installed the new green TCI Unit 4 years ago. I didn't finish the job then; I only cut the wires I was sure of then. I should have gotten rid of them all.

I didn't know as much about the bike 4 years ago as I do now. I was still a little scared of it.

Attached are two pictures of just part of the tape nightmare,the old black TCI Unit & some of the "green wire to nowhere".

The first TCI had two connectors (the green ones). The next one (in the picture) had the added white connector. This is what the connector from the black box plugged into. The black box was the spark delay added to save the sprag.

The new green TCI Unit has the delay incorporated into theTCI itself so the third connector is not used at all & the little black box is not plugged into anything & is redundant. I cleaned up some of the wires & left the box in the side case & forgot about it 4 years ago. If I had finished then, I would not be doing this now. Luckily I found the old TCI & connectors in my box & of "stuff" & it helped to jog my memory.

I hooked the battery up, checked all the lights, verified that the green wire goes to the front brake light switch, turned the engine over with the starter & feel confident now that I can rewrap all these wires before the engine is running again.

So, the little black box was a part of the old RE "Black box" system? The newer "Green box" doesn't use it.

Right.

Another funny thing is that the November 2004 AVL Parts Book I have does NOT have the little black 8-wire box, but it DOES have the three connector TCI Unit. I don't know if it was black or green in the 2004 Parts Book.

My March 2008 Classic had the black TCI. I got the green one free from CMW early in 2011 (I bought the bike brand new in December 2010) & installed it then. Makes me wonder what were the first bikes with the green TCI installed on the line & NO little black box. Or maybe ALL the AVLs got the black TCI Unit except the Electra.

I need help Why do I think about shit like this??

I'm going to go rest now & try to put the whole thing out of my mind & just concentrate on how deep I want to get into my head. And maybe piston. I'll be much better tomorrow & Wednesday morning they say I get to blow more snow.

So even tho the black box was inop, we were technically right about it's purpose. Glad you got it figured out. Did you eliminate the extra wires?

Scottie

Yes, you were right. I believe, with you, that it was a spark delay device they plugged into the black TCI Unit as a fix. Then the delay capability was included internally in the new green TCI Unit.

Yes, I got rid of all the unused green wires & I've laid out all the wires in the area under the seat cleanly where I can look at them. Next (when the vintage style '50s harness tape gets here) is to locate them well & wrap them all cleanly & continue on up that great lump of wires that goes forward under the tank & into the nacelle.

I think I'll count those wires that go forward. There's a huge shitload of them (my shovel runs on about 7 wires).

Hey Tooseevee, i am glad you figured out the much ado about nothing problem . And no more whining about your poor sore fingers. Here in Michigan we call this time of year "rotted splice season". I have spent all week tracing and repairing salt water soaked wiring. It would boggle your mind how one tiny nick in the insulation of a CAN wire can stop an $100,000 SUV dead in it's tracks.ROVERman, get it!

Hey Tooseevee, i am glad you figured out the much ado about nothing problem . And no more whining about your poor sore fingers. Here in Michigan we call this time of year "rotted splice season". I have spent all week tracing and repairing salt water soaked wiring. It would boggle your mind how one tiny nick in the insulation of a CAN wire can stop an $100,000 SUV dead in it's tracks.ROVERman, get it!

It wouldn't boggle my mind at all. I understand perfectly. I've done stuff like that & worse, in the cold, my whole life since I grew up in Wyoming & then spent since 1959 mostly on the East Coast freezing some more. I, like you, just kept on keepin 'on no matter what & most of my joint problems are from a genetic problem I can do nothing to stop; the cold just makes it worse from the summer which is only horrendous .

Just the 10 years I spent in the CG as an Engineman & ET maintaining everything on lifeboat stations (and going out in unbelievable weather, year 'round to rescue IDIOTS), a 125' cutter & a couple of lighthouses was torture most every day, but that & all the other horrendous jobs I've had just made me tougher & stubborner & meaner so that now at close to 76 I'm still doing it.

I understand exactly what you're going through. Just don't ever minimize what others go through

Lifelong chronic pain rots your brain after a while & can make you touchy if you're not constantly on your guard against that. It comes to dominate your life which is why I can't seem to avoid mentioning my hands sometimes. And I wish it was ONLY my hands; it's every single joint, tendon, ligament & fiber now. Things I used to be able to do for hours are now limited to minutes & is why I'm so detail oriented. And stubborn.

The way my mind is made I HAD to figure out the TCI & the black box & the wiring problem even though there was no problem. I HAVE to know what's going on. Can't help it. Does that make sense?

I believe the pulser coil is in with the generator. It's the green and white wires coming out of the motor. Could that box be the starter auto cutoff?

You were the first to get it correct.

The final question that's been bugging me got answered just a few minutes ago when I went down & unwrapped the wires coming out of the primary. (I should have done this before tonight).

I remember three large yellows coming out. I found that there are also two very small gauge wires coming out that were wrapped along with the three large yellows. They were wrapped together all the way up to the connectors.

These two come from the Pulser Coil attached near the rotating part of the alternator.

MY confusion started because on my schematic the Pulser Coil is just sitting out there on the drawing with nothing around it. Just a square with two wires. They should have drawn it in a simple pictorial alternator & I would have known right away what it was.

Instead I started thinking that the little box in the left case was the Pulser Coil when (I know now) it was the Spark Delay (which originally plugged into the 3rd connector on the black TCI Unit).

The little Spark Delay box is NOT on the schematic.

It's all clear to me now, including the evolution of all the TCI Units & I hope the rest of you guys are totally confused

It wouldn't boggle my mind at all. I understand perfectly. I've done stuff like that & worse, in the cold, my whole life since I grew up in Wyoming & then spent since 1959 mostly on the East Coast freezing some more

Tooseevee, gotta ask, when and where were you growing up in Wyoming?Bare

Tooseevee, gotta ask, when and where were you growing up in Wyoming?Bare

Cheyenne my first 18 years. Small farm/ranch 'til 12 then small rural house with my single mother nurse mom. Had a travelin' mom, too, so we were all over the place while I was growing up (my dad was killed in a car wreck near Ottumwa Iowa in 1940 when I was two). I'd been to all the States by 18.

CG after high school (graduated in '56). 10 years. Cal for two years (125' Cutter Ewing in Alameda) after boot camp in Cape May NJ. Two CG schools, Engineman & ET, then lifeboat stations & a couple lighthouses, lots of small boats. Wife threatened to divorce me if I went to Vietnam in '67 so I got out. The rest is long story like everybody else my age.